Posted on February 6, 2025
- The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority proposed a $1.8 billion plan for Louisiana coastal projects in the next fiscal year.
- The CPRA is seeking public feedback on the draft plan, with opportunities for comment through email, online portals, and public meetings.
- The plan includes funding for 133 active projects for coastal protection, restoration and rehabilitation.
The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority plans to spend $1.8 billion on the Louisiana coast in the next fiscal year.
Members of CPRA traveled to the Terrebonne Parish Civic Center, January 30, to present a draft to the public of the annual plan of spending and projects for the next fiscal year: July 1 through June 30, 2026. The plan includes 23 active projects across Terrebonne and Lafourche; 15 projects in engineering across the two parishes; and two projects in the planning phase in Lafourche. The meeting was to gather feedback from the community on the draft before it is finalized March 22.
Several speakers, including State Rep. Joseph Orgeron, spoke in support of the reintroduction of the Mississippi River to Bayou Lafourche and South Louisiana’s estuaries.
“I can tell you with 100% certainty that if we don’t reconnect the river to the estuary the way that it was built over thousands of years, one thing is for sure – just as for the last 58 years of my life driving over the Leeville Bridge and seeing the marsh degrade year after year, it will continue to degrade if we don’t reconnect it,” Orgeron said.
The project involves the creation of a newer, larger, pump station in Donaldsonville that will move water from the Mississippi River to Bayou Lafourche, and is slated for completion during the 2026 fiscal year. Bayou Lafourche supplies drinking water to Ascension, Assumption, Lafourche, and Terrebonne Parish. The total cost of the Project is $230 million. Bayou Lafourche was leveed off in Donaldsonville in 1903, and the old pump station was installed in the 1950’s.
Statewide the draft’s planned $1.8 billion includes 133 active projects, which are expected to create 12,249 jobs according to an estimate by Greater New Orleans Inc.
CPRA Executive Director Glenn Ledet Jr. spoke on how coastal restoration, rehabilitation, and protection work hand-in-hand. He told how CPRA has used the sediments from dredging projects to create new marshes. There are 20 dredging projects in the 2026 draft, that Ledet said will create 14,983 acres of land.
“You see that $1.8 billion investment… what does that mean?” Ledet asked the crowd. He compared the expected land creation to the previous year’s work, “Relative to last year, I think we built almost 13,000 acres of marsh with the amount of work that we are doing.”
Also included in the plan is $25.8 million for the Morganza to the Gulf Project. Its total estimated cost is $4,986,200,000. The Morganza to the Gulf is a lock and levee system that spans 98 miles and protects about 200,000 residents in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes from Gulf of Mexico storms. A Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the project is expected to be released in mid-2026.
Once CPRA’s 2026 fiscal draft is finalized, it is presented to the CPRA Board April 16, and if approved it then goes to the Governor for signing. For those wishing to still submit comments, they can be emailed at coastal@la.gov; on the online portal at AP26.COASTAL.LA.GOV; by physical mail at Annual Plan Comment, 150 Terrace Avenue, Baton Rouge, La 70802; or by attending the next meeting, February 11, in Jefferson Parish. There will also be a virtual webinar, February 12.
For a full listing of CPRA’s timeline visit coastal.la.gov/calendar. To view the draft of the 2026 fiscal year plan yourself, click here: https://ap26.coastal.la.gov/CPRA_FY26-AP.pdf.
Here’s a listing of the projects to be worked on over the next fiscal year in Terrebonne and their total estimated cost for completion:
- Houma Navigational Canal Lock Complex – $357,784,732
- Island Road Marsh Creation and Nourishment – $40,435,267
- Terrebonne Basin Ridge and Marsh Creation – $162,345,000
- Reach L Mitigation – $11,474,425
- Terrebonne HNC Island Restoration – $40,050,000
Here’s a listing of Lafourche Projects under construction over the next fiscal year and their total estimated cost for completion:
- Ludevine pump station – $7,887,531
- Port Fourchon Shoreline Protection – $2,000,000
- Ted Gisclair Lock Structure – $36,450,220
- Northwest Little Lake Marsh Creation Increment 2 – $38,000,000
- Morganza to the Gulf Improvements – $6,750,000
- Morganza to the Gulf Eastern Tie-in Levee Improvements – $7,640,000
- Sugar Ridge Pump Station $5,000,000
- Section A East Interim Levee Improvements – $1,250,000
- Industrial Park Avenue Improvements – $1,250,000
- West Fourchon Marsh Creation – $30,655,764
- Larose to Golden Meadow System – $5,317,174
- Reach L Levee – $25,779,464
- Grand Bayou Pump Station – $8,000,000
- MTG Levee Improvements – $5,000,000
- West Belle Headland Repairs – $79,960,235
- Section A-West Levee Improvement – $4,400,000
